Since the formula for weight loss is to burn more calories than you consume, increasing the calories you burn will help you lose weight (given you don't increase your calories). To maximize the benefits of strength training, you should try to do some sort of strength training for an hour three to five times per week.
While weightlifting can support weight loss, paying attention to your nutrition is another important factor. Weightlifting burns calories, but you'll need to pair it with a suitable diet to achieve noticeable weight loss ( 5 ). You can reach a calorie deficit by exercising regularly and eating slightly fewer calories.
Strength training
You need to be hitting the weights at least three days per week. The research says that at the very least, training a minimum of two days per week is needed to maximize muscle growth.
Any form of exercise can help you lose weight, weightlifting included -- as long as you burn more calories than you consume each day, you'll remain in a calorie deficit and lose weight.
When done right, a 3 days a week workout plan is great for any fitness goals ranging from weight loss, strength, to increased mass and more. While you can choose to split your workouts and exercise different muscle groups a day, you could also do full body workouts and achieve fantastic results.
Gaining muscle is a slow process. It can take about three to four weeks to see a visible change. You'll see some real results after 12 weeks, but it "all depends on your goals, and what type of strength training you are doing," says Haroldsdottir.
Weight and Resistance Training
Weight training is also an important component of burning off belly fat. Since muscles burn off more calories than fat does when the body is at rest, having more muscle tone can help you to burn off more fat.
Summary: Cardio is more effective than weight training at decreasing body fat if you do more than 150 minutes per week. Weight training is better than cardio for building muscle. A combination of cardio and weights may be best for improving your body composition.
Choose a weight you can lift 16 times.
You don't need to go to complete muscle failure, but make sure you're challenging your body. If you can do more than 16 reps, increase your weight next time. Begin with 1 set of each exercise, slowly working your way up to 2 to 3 sets by adding a set each week.
Bottom line: A few minutes of hard exercise is always better than nothing, and it can have real, lasting benefits. “If you're looking to maintain general fitness, 20 minutes is really all you need,” Rosante says.
Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. The guidelines suggest that you spread out this exercise during the course of a week. Greater amounts of exercise will provide even greater health benefit.
In general, try to exercise at least 4 or 5 days a week if you want to see weight loss results in both the short and long term. To max out results, plan on incorporating both cardiovascular and strength training exercises into your regular routine. Your workouts should have a combo of: cardio.
And while it's true that doing steady state cardio probably will help with weight loss, experts say it's totally unnecessary if your main goal is fat loss. In fact, you can lose weight just by lifting weights.
Lifting weights for cutting
If you're trying to lose weight without cardio, you can still hit the gym and drop calories. All of the compound lifts stress the central nervous system and heighten your metabolic rate. The more muscle mass is built, the more calories are burned as muscle tissue burns more calories.
Opinions differ on this but many experts agree that if your goal is weight loss the best strategy is some combination of weight training and cardio. Particularly if you want a lean, cut look your focus should be on increasing cardio and decreasing calories. If you weight train, opt for a 25/75 combination with cardio.
Running is the winner for most calories burned per hour. Stationary bicycling, jogging, and swimming are excellent options as well. HIIT exercises are also great for burning calories. After a HIIT workout, your body will continue to burn calories for up to 24 hours.
When lifting weights, your body works at anywhere from 3 METs (if you're putting in light effort) to 6 METs (if you're really working your butt off). For a 150-pound person, that's anywhere between 200 and 400 calories per hour.
In general, weightlifting for 30 minutes can burn between 90 and 126 calories, depending on a person's body weight. Vigorous weight lifting for 30 minutes may burn between 180 to 252 calories, depending on a person's body weight.
If your goal is better endurance, do cardio before weights. If your goal is burning fat and losing weight, do cardio after weights. If you want to get stronger, do cardio after weights. On upper-body strength training days, you can do either first.
Cardio has been shown to specifically reduce visceral fat, meaning belly fat. While it's clear weight training burns fat better than cardio, cardio training may target the waistline more specifically than lifting weights. That's a huge benefit, as many people are actively seeking to cut inches around the midsection.
Some great choices for burning calories include walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, weight training, interval training, yoga, and Pilates. That said, many other exercises can also help boost your weight loss efforts. It's most important to choose an exercise that you enjoy doing.
1. Crunches: The most effective exercise to burn stomach fat is crunches. Crunches rank top when we talk of fat-burning exercises.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT workouts, which involve repeated bouts of very vigorous exercise and recovery periods, are far and away the best way to burn fat. Research indicates that HIIT workouts burn as many calories as a moderate-intensity, steady-state workout in one-third to one-half the time.
Strong, active back muscles burn fat effectively since they are a large muscle group. They even give good overall shape to the body. Focus on basic movements like deadlifts, pull-ups, chin-ups and rows for maximum gain and benefit.